Exciting live recordings taped 1945–1972 featuring the greatest operas from Mozart to Strauss. It was Mozart who first established a viable, lasting school of German opera with Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail ("The Abduction from the Seraglio"). Beethoven wrote only one opera, Fidelio, but it is a great one! With Der Freischutz, Carl Maria von Weber fi nally established the distinctive style of German opera that would culminate in Wagner and Richard Strauss, whose Flying Dutchman, Tannhauser, and Der Rosenkavalier are all included here.